Three More Accuse Priest

Foley Abused Boys In '70s, Lawsuits Allege

Three more men have come forward with accusations that a Hartford Archdiocese priest molested them as youngsters when he served as a state police and fire chaplain in the 1970s.

The lawsuits filed Monday against the Rev. Stephen Foley and the archdiocese accuse the priest of sexually assaulting the boys, who ranged in age from 11 to 15, when they attended at churches in Bloomfield and Windsor Locks during the 1970s.

The lawsuits also allege that the archdiocese knew or should have known Foley was molesting young boys and that it conspired to keep the priest's actions a secret from parishioners.

The recent claims bring the total number of lawsuits against Foley to five.

Archdiocese spokesman Jack Sitarz did not return a call for comment Tuesday afternoon. Neither Foley nor his attorney, Walter Hampton, could be reached.

The three lawsuits filed Monday come close on the heels of the first two, which make similar accusations.

New London attorney Bob Reardon represents the three men bringing the most recent lawsuits as well as one of the earlier accusers.

Foley, who was placed on administrative leave by the archdiocese in 1993 when he was pastor of St. Dunstan's Church in Glastonbury, is currently assigned to St. Thomas More Seminary in Bloomfield.

Foley is accused of using his position as a fire and police chaplain to lure boys into a relationship with him so he could sexually assault them. Reardon said Foley molested the boys at the rectory, and when he took them away on weekend trips.

One of the men to sue Foley Monday is F. Glenn Sutherland, a Maryland businessman who accuses Foley of molesting him when he was an 11-year-old altar boy at Christ the King Church in Bloomfield in 1972-73.

According to Reardon, the priest took Sutherland to a beach house in Niantic to molest him.

A second accuser, William C. Noll of Florida, said Foley got him drunk and molested him in 1978 when he was a 15-year-old parishioner at St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Windsor Locks. The third lawsuit was brought by a man identified as John D. Doe, who was also a 15-year-old at St. Robert Bellarmine Church.

Both Noll and John D. Doe claim the priest molested them at his aunt's beach house near Cape Cod during the summers of 1978 and 1979.

Reardon has instructed all his clients not to speak to reporters until depositions are taken in the case.